Special Session Update: The “Sham-Wow!” Budget Deal

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Monday marks the start of the sixth week of the Special Session and is also the next to last day before the "drop dead" date on which the Legislature can refer any matters to the general election ballot on November 3. Secretary of State Ken Bennett has said that the tax referral must be approved by 8 a.m. Tuesday if he and county elections officials across the state are to have enough time to prepare for a Nov. 3 special election. These clowns just keep making it up as they go along without any regard for rules and procedures.

The deadline pressure to enact a budget on Monday has led to what I call the "Sham-Wow!" budget deal: it's a "sham" in order to get the GOP caucus in the Senate to split their votes to provide the necessary 16 votes to pass the budget package, and "wow!," as in "Wow, can they really do that?" See the previous paragraph.

This strategy will require another vote in the House if it actually passes the Senate, and the House could reject this "Sham-Wow!" budget deal. How this turns out is anyone's guess at this point.

On Friday the GOP insane clown posse leadership and the Accidental Governor proposed this truly diabolical "Sham-Wow!" budget plan to try to squeeze the 16 votes needed from their GOP caucus in the Senate. New twist to budget plan:

The roughly $8 billion spending package is functionally the same as one that came up just shy of the votes needed for passage in late July.

This time, however, legislative leaders plan to split one of the bills, separating provisions that would refer a sales-tax increase to the November ballot from $400 million worth of income-tax cuts that would take effect in future years.

The hope: Lure the crucial 16th "aye" vote needed for Senate approval of the package.

The targets in this case appear to be Republican Sens. Carolyn Allen and Pamela Gorman. The two women, at opposite ends of the Republican political spectrum, have been the focus of intense lobbying as legislators have tried to broker a deal with Brewer.

Allen, of Scottsdale, has supported the tax referral but objected to voting for it if it's packaged with a series of tax cuts she believes the state can't afford.

Meanwhile, Gorman, of Anthem, has been a budget holdout because of her opposition to the sales-tax hike. If the tax provisions are separated, so the thinking goes, Allen could be the 16th vote for the tax referral and Gorman could be the 16th for the tax cuts.

That's the plan, anyway. But Allen made it clear that she is no sure bet to support the reconfigured budget deal. "I don't know. I'm not supporting something I haven't seen," Allen told The Republic on Friday. "They had months to do this – months – and did nothing. Now, it's my responsibility to solve their dilemma?"

Brewer has maintained her push for a Nov. 3 ballot measure that would ask voters to temporarily increase the state sales tax by 1 cent per dollar. To sweeten the plan for anti-tax conservatives, legislative leaders added a three-year spending cap and $400 million worth of individual and corporate income-tax cuts that would begin in 2011.

Now, it's possible that separating the tax increase from the tax cuts may lure Allen while chasing off more conservative lawmakers.

"We probably don't have the votes for that kind of arrangement in the House," conceded House Speaker Kirk Adams, a Mesa Republican.

Rep. Carl Seel, one of the Legislature's more conservative members, was more blunt. Any splitting of the tax bills will be "a recipe to kill the (sales tax) referral," the Phoenix Republican said.

Sounds like a shaky deal. What's Plan B? Yet another diabolical scheme! The "no tax" pledge Grover Norquist (photo left) Republicans have received a special dispensation from their dark lord and master of the underworld of corrupt K Street lobbyists to whom they have pledged their undying allegiance and loyalty. Anti-tax leader OK with sending hike to ballot:

The head of the organization that was able to convince a majority of Republican legislators to sign a "no tax" pledge gave his permission Friday for them to send a measure to the ballot asking voters to temporarily hike the state sales tax.

Patrick Gleason, state affairs manager for Americans for Tax Reform, said that the organization's president and founder, Grover Norquist, will not consider the move a violation of their pledge. But Gleason said that allowance is conditional on future tax cuts remaining in the budget package, even if those are in separate pieces of legislation.

The action by Norquist, who has developed a reputation as perhaps the nation's No. 1 anti-tax crusader, could prove to be just what's needed to line up the votes for a deal to finally enact a budget for the fiscal year that began more than a month ago.

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The deal passed by the House includes [the tax] referral – but with a twist.

The same bill also includes permanent repeal of the currently suspended state property tax. That levy, which would raise $250 million a year, returns automatically this fall unless lawmakers act first.

It also includes a 30 percent cut in corporate income taxes and a 6.6 percent cut in individual income tax rates, both effective in 2011. Based on that, Americans for Tax Reform and the affiliated Arizona Free Enterprise Club told pledge signers they could safely vote for the bill without being accused of breaking their promise.

One of those who agreed to go along is Rep. Carl Seel, R-Phoenix. In fact, Seel said he spoke to someone from Americans for Tax Reform "at length" before deciding what to do.

"They made it abundantly clear to me that, based on the structure of that bill, it's a net positive and would in no way, shape or form violate the pledge," Seel said.

Criminey Carl, what was your price to sell your soul to Grover? Will Grover come to claim your soul into eternal damnation if you vote for a tax referral?

The "Sham-Wow!" budget deal requires the tax referral on one bill and the tax cuts on another bill to be "decoupled." The move is necessary because, as a single bill, Brewer cannot get the 16 votes necessary in the Senate; as separate bills, however, both could pass.

If that happens, though, the revised plan goes back to the House, forcing Seel and other Republicans who took the pledge to cast a vote on a bill with the sole purpose of raising taxes.

Seel said that if there were two separate bills last time, he would have voted for the tax cuts and against the tax referral. And he said that if the bill is split now, "that's a recipe to kill the referral."

There isn't a lot of wiggle room: Even as a single bill, the measure had only 32 votes – all Republicans – one more than the bare minimum for approval in the 60-member House. The loss of just two votes not only kills the referral but, in all likelihood, blows up the deal, because Brewer won't sign the rest of the budget package – including the tax cuts – without it.

The dark lord and master of the underworld of corrupt K Street lobbyists has ordained that his special dispensation to permit a vote for the sales tax referral without violating his "no tax" pledge has other conditions attached: "It has to be the same day"… More to the point, it must be part of the "same budget package," said Gleason.

Or what, Grover will come to claim all of their souls into eternal damnation?

Nine of 18 Republicans in the Senate took the pledge, as did 20 of 35 House Republicans. They have violated their oath of office by pledging their undying allegiance and loyalty to a corrupt K Street lobbyist, which for them takes precedence over their oath of office, and any accountability to the constituents who elected them. Anyone who signed this pledge is unfit to serve in public office.

What's more is that the Republicans who do vote for the sales tax referral to the ballot intend to campaign against it and defeat it in November, so that they can use the defeat as an excuse to go hog wild cutting the budget even further. It is purely cynical.

By the way, if you want to submit arguments for or against the sales tax hike – which is an uncertainty – the deadline technically is Monday but it also has been extended (but of course). Comments on sales-tax hike sought:

Secretary of State Ken Bennett said his office will extend the comment deadline to Aug. 14, given the fact that the state Senate has yet to vote on whether to call a Nov. 3 election.

* * *

In addition to the sales-tax hike, the potential Nov. 3 election would ask voters whether to suspend the Voter Protection Act for three years, so lawmakers can touch spending items that are currently off limits.

Comments on ballot issues must be 300 words or less and contain the notarized signatures of those submitting the argument. The filing fee is $75 if submitted electronically, $100 if walked or mailed in. Details are available on the secretary of state's Web site, www.azsos.gov/election/IRR.

Monday should prove to be an entertaining day at the Lege. Kinda like watching a train wreck about to happen in slow motion right before your eyes.